The problem is that pool is getting increasingly poisoned. Websites are increasingly hosting third-party analytics and advertising tracker scripts on their own sites in order to evade people who are trying to avoid them.

This is making it much less acceptable to allow first-party cookies and scripts.

Yeah, it seems like sites that offer content without a subscription keep trying to show ads (which nobody buys untargeted because they’d be a massive waste of money). It implies that the content needs to be paid for - and that’s why they’re not all just taking a polite “no” and giving up on it.

And if you believe that Internet ads could be just as scattershot as the Bud Light, Coke, and Toyota spots on TV, consider how much of the Internet ad market is niche stuff you’d never see on TV ads because they couldn’t afford it. Consider every SaaS product: they don’t advertise on TV because their target customer is too niche. Probably 75% of ad dollars would simply not be there without targeting. People choose over and over again to get content for free, and then complain about it because everyone loves to complain. No one loves opening their wallet.

So what? Literally billions of people get tracked and profiled so that some video creator can earn a bit more money... who cares. They can do it for less, or charge money directly if they think they've got what it takes. A few individuals lose a bit, while billions gain some privacy.